Hundreds of original wartime art works are going online following a partnership between The National Archives and Wikimedia UK.

Photographed with a digitisation grant from Wikimedia UK, the collection is now freely available on Wikimedia Commons and includes oil paintings, drawings, posters, caricatures and portraits produced as propaganda for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War. There are currently over 350 pieces available to view online, but there are plans to digitise the entire collection of almost 2,000 art works.

The collection includes portraits of Allied commanders, members of the Royal Family and leading figures such as Stalin, Churchill and Eisenhower. Also showcased are some of the original works behind famous campaigns such as ‘Dig for Victory’ and ‘Careless talk costs lives’, as well as works by artists such as Terence Cuneo and Laura Knight.

The collection also includes unpublished and draft works, many with pencilled comments by the artists or Ministry officials clearly visible.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.